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It’s a Memphis Walk for Toms

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From Times Staff and Wire Reports

David Toms showed Sunday that he still knows how to finish off a golf tournament.

Toms started the final round with a seven-stroke lead, and nothing -- not even windy conditions -- stopped him from repeating as champion at the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn.

He shot a two-over-par 73 and still finished with a six-stroke victory over Bob Estes for his 10th PGA Tour victory and first since winning last year’s event.

This is the eighth time in Toms’ career that he has begun the final round with at least a share of the lead after 54 holes. He has won six of those, including five in a row.

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Toms came to Memphis having missed five of his last seven cuts as he recovered from surgery in December to remove bone chips from his left wrist. He finished at 16-under 268 and won $846,000.

Estes birdied the final hole for a 69 that put him into second place with 274.

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Annika Sorenstam shot a four-under 68 for a two-stroke victory over Michelle Estill and Vicki Goetze-Ackerman in the Corning Classic at Corning, N.Y.

It was Sorenstam’s third victory this year and 51st overall. And it came a year after she had skipped Corning to play against the men at Colonial.

Sorenstam finished at 18-under 270 and earned $150,000 to take over the top spot on the money list from Grace Park.

Estill, who finished with a 71, was bidding for her first win in nearly 13 years. Instead, she squandered a four-shot lead over the final 11 holes and tied Goetze-Ackerman, who had a 67.

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Hale Irwin had a one-shot lead over Dave Barr and Jay Haas when the final round was suspended at the rain-plagued Senior PGA Championship in Louisville, Ky.

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A weather front that spawned tornados in Indiana moved through the area, triggering the fourth delay in four days. Play was suspended late in the afternoon. The players were due to resume their final rounds this morning.

Irwin completed only one hole in his final round and was at seven under. He finished the third round with a two-under 69.

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Scott Drummond, ranked 435th in the world, won the Volvo PGA Championship at Virginia Water, England. He is the first to win the European PGA Tour’s flagship event on his first try since Arnold Palmer did it in 1975. Drummond shot an eight-under 64 for a two-stroke victory over Angel Cabrera, who shot 67. Drummond had a bogey-free fourth round and finished at 19-under 269.

Pro Basketball

Tina Thompson scored 27 points to lead the Houston Comets to a 63-57 victory over the Sacramento Monarchs in a WNBA game in front of 7,317 at Houston. The victory allowed the Comets (3-2) to avoid their first losing record in the month of May in franchise history.... Elena Baranova scored 16 points to help the New York Liberty defeat the Minnesota Lynx, 68-64, in front of 6,009 at Minneapolis. The Liberty won its third in a row after dropping its season opener by a basket at Indiana.

Miscellany

In Major League Soccer, John Wolyniec scored on a header in the 72nd minute, leading the Metro- Stars to a 1-0 victory over the Kansas City Wizards in front of 9,101 in East Rutherford, N.J. The win lifted the MetroStars (3-1-4) into a tie for first place with Chicago in the Eastern Conference. The Wizards are 3-3-2.

Holly McPeak tied Karolyn Kirby as the winningest female player in pro beach volleyball history when she teamed with Elaine Youngs to win the $180,000 FIVB World Tour event in Shanghai with a 21-17, 21-13 victory over Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan.

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In tying Kirby’s record of 67 championships, McPeak now owns or shares the women’s career marks for event titles, tournaments played (228) and earnings. She increased her all-time winnings to $1,206,201.

In the U.S. shooting trials at Ft. Benning, Ga., Adam Saathoff and Koby Holland qualified for the Athens Olympics by taking the top two spots in the running-target competition. Saathoff won with 1,913 points. Holland had 1,910.... In the world track cycling championships, Theo Bos of the Netherlands beat defending champion Laurent Gane of France in consecutive races to win the best-of-three sprint final at Melbourne, Australia. Bos defeated Gane in 10.752 seconds and in 10.715 over the 250-meter track.... In rugby, Mike Hercus scored a try and 26 points to lead the U.S. over Russia, 41-11, in the Super Cup’s consolation match at Tokyo.

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